Gavyn Davies Quotes

In some ways, you could argue, television is doing far more interesting work than the movies. It's more fulfilling.

Some of the most interesting questions needing to be asked today can best be asked on television, or on stage, and they can be wonderful, great dramas, but they won't necessarily be blockbusters.

In my theater, I'm not trying to change the world.

The [motion picture] screen will most securely establish itself as an accepted and useful factor in national life in proportion as it shall recognize its duty …

We are increasingly offered a diet in which sensation, not story, is king.

A great byproduct of a TV show, movie, or play is when it can act as a catalyst for someone.

I do a film if it interests me, has a connect with the audience and some entertainment value. The rest doesn't matter.

I've never fallen into what I consider to be a trap of trying to figure out something analytically that could be a very popular film. I would hope my enthusiasm could match up with something with that potential.

I want to make all kinds of movies. I do want to make big movies that are a lot of fun to go to, but I also want to make movies that are going to stimulate some thought and maybe raise some awareness.

When I got to filmmaking, the most democratic of environments where anybody could say anything, those were the best environments, but what you don't want to assume is that you know what the audience is thinking.

I never know why shows succeed or don't succeed, which is why I look at it as, 'I'll do the best work that I can', and if the fans and people respond then I'm always really flattered and honored, and if they don't then I'll try and do something next time that they like better. But I have no idea what makes a hit show, I really don't.

Television is what it's always been. The best of times and the worst of times at the same time.

I think when I start out writing, I always try to write the version of the movie that I want to go see. I don't mean it in a way that ignores the audience, but I really set out to make a movie that I want to see and that, hopefully, other people will want to go see it. So whatever's amusing to me, I guess, I throw it all in there.

The goal for Shondaland is to continue to make very good shows that we're proud of when they're ready.

Cable TV has become where the best actors, writers and directors have gone to work because they are allowed to do character-driven stories.

With my plays, when the lights go down, at least the audience isn't thinking, 'Oh, God, two more hours of this.'

The best cinema is about ethics.

Mainly, I'm doing my thing, and I hope people like it. I don't say, 'I'm going to write something radical and hope it reverberates throughout society.' The goal is to write a solid, entertaining, engaging show.

The fact is that Hollywood, from as early as the sixties to the present time, has ghettoized cinema into the big industry, a marketing industry. In doing this, the audiences have lost touch with the aspects of film which were to be informative and educational and even spiritual.

I have respect for anyone who's going to go out and make a movie for a small budget and turn it into a phenomenon. God bless you. Please keep making movies. That's great. But it's not what entertains me.

I don't think you can really make television based on what you think audiences want. You can only make stories that you like, because you have to watch it so many times.

I think indie films are really important, because they show the studios and the audiences when they see them, great stories. Really interesting, small stories.

As much as I very much want audiences to watch FX's carefully curated and highly contextualized television shows, I'm now glad when anyone takes the time to watch even our competition's television series, as long as it demands their sustained attention and challenges their knee-jerk perceptions.

The business has changed, and some people can keep talking about theatrical in these wondrous terms - it will survive, but it becomes narrower what you can make. So the films I'm most interested in, studios - or even the independents - aren't making them. I'm mostly interested in people.

We know television should educate and inform, and I believe it should entertain.